OK, Tegan and Sara – Back in Your Head is now one of my favorites, possibly because their accents (which I really like) are quite prominent. Pretty sure it was Lo Pan hyping them that turned me on to them. Thanks.

I’d start with Sainthood or The Con. Both are their strongest albums. Both are filled with great songs. You should check out their first “proper” album as well, “This Business of Art”. Its much more funk and rock n roll. Quite different and quite good.

because Harry Hops and Mary Jane Marijuana are cousins. Or so I’ve heard.

Dry hopping will emphasize the floral/grassy aromatics from the hops so that is why you will get it more from a dry hopped beer. Also any heavily hopped beer will probably have alot of late addition hops so again the volatile aromatics are preserved into the beer.

Just came home from seeing Harry Potter.. fucking amazing it was. Highly recommended if you are a fan of the books/movies. They changed many things from the book but it all made sense, and made it into an incredible movie that stands well on its own.

Going to go get ready to celebrate my birthday with my inlaws and Hugh

I just got back from seeing “Super 8”.
It was fun enough but I definitely saw the whole “ET – Reboot” thing.
It did leave me feeling kind of uncomfortable that we can’t just tell that story any more. Now, we have to take that story and make it very, intensely violent … or apparently no one would even notice.
I don’t think that says anything good about who we’ve become as a society since the original ET.

In other news, My rain gauge says we had 1.8 inches of rain while I was at the theater. 1 inch of that fell in a 15 minute period! I’ll bet that was something to see.

I can understand some of his complaints about beer geeks, but in my (limited) experience bars won’t go into detail unless you ask them. His example night sounds like they went out to have a bad time, or were trying to seem more interested and knowledgeable than they actually were about the less mainstream beers.

Yep.
Here’s a guy who is just fine with what ever mass produced, fermented grain based beverage is put in front of him and dammit!!!! Why can’t everyone else just like it too?

The funny thing is … until about three years ago I had come to the conclusion that I really didn’t like beer. Oh, I’d drink it if I was at a party and that is all they had … or I was in a bar with friends and all they had was Miller/bud/coors … but it was just a means to get a buzz on. I didn’t actually “like” the taste.
Then I found out beer could taste GOOD.

So this guy is whining that if I want to drink beer I should just suck it up, be a man and stop trying to actually ENJOY the flavor.

If we cooperate and avert this impending crisis, then it only makes our sworn enemy look good. On the other hand, if we obstruct the whole thing and there’s a huge disaster, then we can blame him and everyone will believe this is his screwup. I’m super-rich enough to survive whatever bad stuff will happen anyway.
— Inside the heads of the deuches during their budget negotiations.

*SIGH*
It is all I can do to keep from launching into any number of posts from here.
Things are SO much NOT what the general public is being led to believe.
Finally it seems, economists are starting to find the balls to speak out against the sea of populist idiocracy. Is it too late though.
I will simply offer the following links.
Follow them or not. It is your choice.

This is a great beer objectively speaking, and I find myself liking it despite my personal tastes. My problem is the use of so much piney hops it almost blows out my taste buds, but that is a common issue with IPAs for me. The other thing is that I cannot detect oak anywhere in this beer, which makes me think it’s overpowered by the hops.

In all other respects this is a great beer with a strong hop aroma and flavor, nicely balanced to make it perfectly drinkable.

And now dear deadpanites we come to the main beer event for me this evening. Oh if you see the joy and love shining from my eyes as I gaze upon this beautifully simple bottle. I speak of the mistress of ale who started my interest in saisons, and who has forsaken me for about a year and a half. All the way from the tank of delicious libation at the Boulevard Brewery I type of no other than the limited release Saison with Brettanomyces.

This saison pours a cloudy gold with a big white head. It has an aroma of citrus with an underlying scent of hay-like funk. This continues into a flavor of strong bitter citrus, supported by a hint of that funkiness I mentioned earlier. It is a very dry ale, which combined with the high carbonation makes it seem to evaporate off your tongue, and thirsty for another drink.

I recommend it to others who enjoy saisons, or are interested in the wilder side of beers. Let it warm slightly out of the fridge, this will let the malt come forward slightly and moderate the bitter hops, which seemed kind of harsh when colder.

The guys over at Six String Bliss are recreating the Pink Floyd song “Hey You” as a learning exercise for using home recording techniques. This isn’t the final version, but holy cow does it sound awesome! I created my non-involvement for how great it sounds so far. 🙂

It’s been an ugly month so far, but fortunately–knock on wood–nothing truly bad has happened. A good friend had an extremely close call in Iraq, but that, really, has been the worst of it. Instead, it has been stress, stress, stress.

World Cup observation of the day: How many times does the US team need to shoot at goal before they actually get one in?

Damn they are playing well but they need to start getting some points to show for it. Not that Japan is playing poorly. The US are not missing goals because the Japan team is defending well. They keep aiming at the goal posts or over it.

I LOVED that movie.
I used to tell myself that when I got a place of my own I would have DUCTS all throughout it.
I finally got my own place. I didn’t outfit it with ducts.
I have always been secretly saddened.

In truth … I’ve not seen it in many years and I don’t know if it would leave me felling the same way now.
Seems like I have re-watched several favorites in the last few years that have left me thinking … “meh”.

I think we’re being invaded. We seem to be getting two or three bees a day in the house. I’ve been all over the lusher and in and I can’t for the life of me find where they are coming from. I’ve even sprayed every vent leading into the house and still…

Oh ditto…. jumping in right now to that show may not be the best of ideas.. its not like its an overly complex story arc but you may not get full enjoyment. Watch it tonite then I really do recommend starting from the beginning. Its good to have a lighthearted sci-fi show that you can just enjoy without having to put heart an soul into it. Great characters as well! (mostly)

And by this I just mean that theres so much bloated “we take ourselves so serious” bullshit on TV, combined with all the reality bullshit, its refreshing to have something like Eureka (and to a point Warehouse 13) to just be able to kick back and just enjoy a beer with.

Yeh.
Mid season 2 is when I gave up on it as well.
It just didn’t know what it wanted to be.
If it wanted to be all “X-Files” and creepy, I was down with that.
If it wanted to be all “tongue in check, wink wink nudge nudge” … I was okay with that too.

Problem was (for me at least) that one minute they’d be trying to build suspense and like “wow this is really bad … oh hell no, THAT GUY JUST GOT HORRIBLY KILLED!” and then in the next scene they’d be all “Oh, Wise guy! Nuck nuck nuck.” 3 stooges.

Their inability to pick one tone and stick with it, led to me not being able to “connect” with the show.

Eh. Never once felt that tho. To me, after the first season, it knew exactly what it wanted to be which was single episode adventures (if you will) with an overall arc that would come into play once in a while, much like X-Files. Plus I’d rather have a show that has serious one minute and “nuck nuck” the next. Life isnt always one tone. No reason shows have to be. Its what inevitably killed BSG for me. Way too dark all the time with a sudden “bright” ending. No thanks.

On the annoying side, I’m having internet problems at home, so the cable repair guy is coming over tomorrow. That will be just oooodles of fun. And I’ve learned that the last plumber installed our frost free outdoor tap wrong. Looks like it’s a trip to the hardware store for me.

The age of dreadnought warfare returns with a vengeance when a radical paramilitary group launches a super-advanced modern battleship. With no other options, the last U.S. battleship available — the U.S.S. Iowa — steams out to oppose the supership.

So pseudo-fedex delivers the teacher a package and it’s ringing and there’s a box in the bag and a phone in the box, but it’s a mobile phone and the teacher has no idea how to answer it, so a kid runs up and answers it for him. What’s up with that?

Went to the Twins day game yesterday. After all the Metrodome years, quite the experience attending a game with a heat index of 112ºF. Plus instead of my usual shady seats, these were Dad’s premo 2-set a year seats about 16 rows back from the plate and in full sun.

We spent the 3-5 innings walking the shaded concourse around the park, watching from various spots (a big improvement over the dome, where you could see nothing but concrete hallway in there). After another inning in the sun, we moved up about 7 rows to seats, which were just getting into shade that someone had abandoned. Then we left an inning early to get on a slightly less packed train than the end of the game would have allowed.

And the Twins lost. Still quite the experience for previously dome-bound fans.

There was a picture of 2 people on the left and right of the content. One of those 2 actors I liked so I was wondering what movie she was going to be in. I tried to click on the picture or find anything that would say what movie she was in.
I have no attention span and want everything handed to me on a sliver platter so I gave up and forgot about looking all together.

ok, the last sentence isn’t true I did some digging and figured it out. anyone need a soap box?

I just want you to know, I’m tired of staring at the stupid WWC program book. I wish someone else on the committee would edit it. A second set of eyes is easier than trying to find your own mistakes. bleh :blink:

I got some news that’s going to cost me a few pennies. Last week my daughters’ car was rear-ended (that’s not the news). Her car is a 2001 nissan. The insurance company (of the other driver since it was his fault) decided it would be more to their advantage to write the car off then to repair it. Probably true, but since they never give the actual replacement cost of a vehicle that means mom (me) will be footing the difference between what the insurance company will give her and something to replace it. We find out tomorrow how much they are willing to offer.

Nope. She transports live reptiles for her job. I found two vehicles for around the $4,000 range and both the Lemon Aid buyers guide gave a “don’t buy” rating. I may have to increase her allowance. Sucks.

Well I found a 2008 Hyundai Accent for $6,500. It’s more than I wanted to spend but it has a “higher than average” rating in the buyers guide and that’s important to me. I guess we’ll go look at it either tomorrow or Thursday.

Dealer. Even on the used car buyers listing in Calgary this was a better deal. Also, through a dealer you get their “guarantee” and I don’t have to worry about it breaking down five minutes after she drives it off the lot.

Just watched the first episode of Alphas. Leave it to me to have one very specific issue with the show. Suspension of disbelief is an odd thing to pin down and it can be very difficult to pin down the point when, say, someone will be OK with Superman being able to fly and have super strength based on the color of light exuded from the sun and when they will cry massive bullshit when he starts flying around the earth backwards to reverse time. Both are equally implausible, but one seems more like stupidity than the other. In Alphas, all of the characters labeled as “Alphas” have some sort of super ability that is just as implausible as all of the others. Yet, working on a PhD in Cognitive Psychology (specifically Sensation and Perception), I nearly leapt out of my seat yelling at the television when one of the characters was labeled as having synesthesia and the explanation is that she is able to heighten her senses. What’s more, when the character is heightening a particular sense (i.e. vision) she is unable to use specific other senses (i.e. hearing). Quick psychology lesson… synethesia is a BLENDING of the senses. For example, when one patient tastes a specific combination of chicken, orange, and ice cream, they simultaneously see a purple blotch. So, synethesia is when one sense is inexplicably linked to another (in this case, vision to taste). So the show not only got it wrong in it being a heightening of the senses, but they got it VERY, VERY wrong when they have the senses interfering with each other. You would think that some writer for the series somewhere would be able to be bothered to look up synethesia on wikipedia or something. It’s like they’re doing it on purpose.